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Aetos Dios
"Eagle of God" -- The golden eagle endlessly associated with Zeus. On three separate occasions in Troidai, Ganymede either sees or hears an eagle: once while hiding on the balcony of Women’s House, once on the evening he’s attacked by Ilos, and once more following the assault of the war-god. A later conversation with Diwos suggests that, on each of these occasions, the eagle’s presence represented the sky-god keeping watch over the boy. At the end of Troidai, Ganymede again encounters the eagle during his exile in Grenikos. On this occasion however, the eagle lands atop an oak tree and fixes Ganymede with its gaze. It is only on approaching the tree and bird that he discovers Diwos sitting beneath the oak. Early in Theidai, Ganymede picks up this image again, speculating that the shepherds he left behind invented the story his being carried off by an eagle, ostensibly to avoid accusations of murder, which they were plotting. When he encounters the eagle after joining the Undying, Ganymede comes to understand that it represents Diwos’ attention being focused upon mortal matters, if not the sky-god’s actual presence in the vicinity. In the latter regard, Ganymede finds the eagle perched atop buildings Diwos occupies; once in Wilusa confronting Poseidaon, and again in Thebai while seducing Alkmenë. It is only in Ilidai that Ganymede and Aetos Dios become inextricably connected to one another. Having determined the gods mean to destroy their own half-mortal children, Ganymede throws himself from aither, only to be caught by Aetos Dios and carried safely back to Troas. Thereafter, the eagle seems to become Ganymede’s faithful companion, first accompanying him on Hektor’s whirlwind tour of Anatolia, then building a nest atop Diwos’ temple in Ilion. As the story and impending war progress, Aetos Dios transports Ganymede over vast distances in surprisingly little time. Though he maintains the eagle is nothing more than a very large but otherwise normal bird, the implication that Diwos sent his favorite pet to serve as guardian-chaperon are replete. Ultimately, Ganymede leaves Aetos Dios with Aineias, noting that the eagle remained ever-loyal to Dardanos’ heirs thereafter. By implication, it was therefore this same eagle or one of his descendants who followed Aineias’ successors into the west, eventually becoming the pride-filled emblem of Rome. Myth & Legend: Antoninus Liberalis records the legend of Periphas, a legendary king of Attica and dutiful priest of Apollo. Zeus became envious of Periphas’ popularity and sought to destroy him, but Apollo interceded. Zeus therefore transformed Periphas into an eagle, making him king of all birds and guard of his sacred scepter. In other accounts, the eagle was a creation of Gaia. He appeared before Zeus at the start of Titanomachy, which was taken as an omen of Olympian victory. Zeus thereafter used the emblem of a golden eagle on his war standard. Iliad states that Ganymede was carried off by the gods in general, while Apollodorus, Virgil, Ovid, and Lucian all maintain that Zeus abducted the boy himself, possibly in the form of a giant eagle, or that he sent an eagle to carry the boy off.